loons – The National Wildlife Federation Bloghttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogSat, 17 Mar 2018 14:10:57 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4139259312Why Wildlife is Cheering for the Clean Power Planhttp://blog.nwf.org/2015/08/why-wildlife-is-cheering-for-the-clean-power-plan/
http://blog.nwf.org/2015/08/why-wildlife-is-cheering-for-the-clean-power-plan/#commentsMon, 03 Aug 2015 18:19:49 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=108328President Obama has taken a historic and ambitious step in the fight against carbon pollution that threatens wildlife. With the announcement of the finalized Clean Power Plan, the President has enacted the first ever rules designed to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Power plants comprise about 40% of the nation’s emissions.

The National Climate Assessment shows that wildlife and communities are already feeling the impacts of climate with rising seas, ocean acidification, heavier precipitation, changes in growing seasons, decreased cold and snow pack, increased incidence of pests, devastating wildfires and droughts, and other significant impacts. Photo by Mary Harvey

The plan is part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, and a key component of America’s commitment to reduce its carbon emissions by up to 28% by 2025. The plan sets achievable reduction targets for states to meet using three building blocks: efficiency improvements at existing coal plants, switching plants from coal to natural gas, and increasing renewable energy. States then have flexibility to tailor their own plans to meet their target.

An Improved Plan for Tackling Climate Change

The final rule has some noted improvements over a proposed rule issued last year. For one, the final rule has a more ambitious target for overall emissions reductions, set at 32% by 2030. Also, the EPA listened to the countless voices who called for more emphasis on renewable energy.

Building on the soaring growth of clean sources of energy like wind and solar, the final rule has incentives and goals that are projected to result in an increase in renewable power generation from 22% to 28%. This is extremely welcome news.

The EPA has also included changes to give states even more latitude in terms of achieving compliance by moving back the compliance date and allowing states more time if they have reliability concerns. But compliance should not be a problem as more than half of states are already on track to meet the proposed rule’s 2020 benchmarks for reducing carbon pollution, with 14 of those states on track to exceed those benchmarks.

We Need to Act to Protect Wildlife

These measures come none too soon. The first five months of 2015 were the hottest on record, on pace to surpass 2014’s record year. A recent study published in the journal Nature finds an increasingly visible link between global warming and extreme weather, with warmer temperatures adding fuel to superstorms like Sandy.

Climate change poses a direct threat to wildlife and communities. If carbon pollution continues unabated, scientists predict that higher temperatures will lead to extinction of 50% of species around the globe.

Here are four species that are cheering about the President’s Clean Power Plan:

Ducks

Mallards and other ducks stand to gain from the Clean Power Plan. Photo Credit: USFWS.

Nearly half of America’s ducks come from a region in the northern Great Plains and Canada called the Prairie Pothole region. This vast expanse, which covers the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Montana and three Canadian provinces, can contain up to six million shallow, often seasonal ponds that provide optimal breeding grounds for ducks.

Brook Trout

Brook trout could be extinct in states like Virginia if global warming is not addressed. Photo Credit Flickr USFWS.

Brook trout, a favorite catch of anglers, inhabit only the clearest, coolest streams. In many places, these streams are at the upper most part of the watershed. As the climate warms, so do these streams. Increasingly, these streams are becoming too warm for brook trout have nowhere else to go.

For instance, in Virginia, where brook trout are the official state fish, recent climate modeling suggests brook trout could be gone from the state by mid-century. The Clean Power Plan is a big step in the right direction to ensuring brook trout will keep swimming in our streams.

Moose

Moose are already suffering significant declines likely due to climate change in several northern states. Photo by Mitchell Rothman.

Moose are America’s biggest and most recognizable ungulate. But moose are not well adapted for warm weather and are not found in places with extended periods above 82 degrees F.

Heat is already taking a toll on moose. In addition to heat stress, warming temperatures are allowing parasitic ticks to flourish, and tens of thousands of ticks can attach themselves to moose, literally sucking the life out of them. The results are high fatalities particularly in juvenile moose. In the last 25 years, one of Minnesota’s moose populations has plummeted from 4,000 to fewer than 100. Declines are also being seen in Maine and New Hampshire.

Without action like the Clean Power Plan, it is likely that moose populations will largely be driven out of the lower 48 states.

Loons

The Clean Power Plan will also reduce other harmful pollutants, like mercury, that are poisoning loons and other wildlife. Photo by Ronald Norman.

Currently, most states have fish advisories in place concerning thousands of water bodies because mercury from power plants have resulted in serious health risks associated with eating fish. Coal fired power plants are the source of over half of human introduced mercury into the environment.

While we can choose not to eat fish – a choice we shouldn’t have to make – wildlife can’t. Wildlife, like loons, that survive on fish in our lakes have no choice but to eat contaminated fish. A recent report found that 75% of loons in once pristine Adirondack lakes far from coal plants had mercury levels that posed high to moderate risks.

Mercury is so toxic, that 1/70th of teaspoon to the make the fish in a 25 acre lake unsafe to eat. As the Clean Power Plan powers down mercury spewing coal and powers up renewables, EPA estimates that the Clean Power Plan will remove thousands of pounds of mercury from the environment. That’s good news for both people and loons who like to eat the fish they catch.

What’s Next?

Now it’s up to states to craft implementation plans to ensure the Clean Power Plan’s goals are realized. If states fail to act, the EPA will implement a federal plan on the state’s behalf. However, the plan is designed to make implementation easy for states. As National Wildlife Federation’s President and CEO Collin O’Mara explains:

The President has provided states with the flexibility necessary to achieve meaningful reductions in a way that unleashes American innovation to maximize benefits and strengthen the economy. From the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to California’s carbon trading system, state-based and regional limits on industrial carbon pollution are proven effective at both cutting pollution and creating jobs.

There’s still a lot of work to do. But the President has taken a huge step towards reducing carbon pollution and has set the stage for further national and international action to keep ducks, trout, moose and loons a thriving part of our children’s future.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2015/08/why-wildlife-is-cheering-for-the-clean-power-plan/feed/3108328Wildlife Benefits of Clean Power Plan Go Way Beyond Climate Changehttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/07/wildlife-benefits-of-clean-power-plan-go-way-beyond-climate-change/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/07/wildlife-benefits-of-clean-power-plan-go-way-beyond-climate-change/#respondMon, 14 Jul 2014 12:47:46 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=98274There are many benefits to wildlife from reducing carbon emissions from power plants under the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan. Runaway climate change threatens at least half of all species on Earth with extinction. And many species will their ranges significantly diminished or changed. EPA’s plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants – America’s largest single source of climate disrupting greenhouse gases – by 30% by 2030 is a critical step in keeping the planet a place where wildlife can continue to thrive, and even further reductions are likely.

Fossil fuel power plants, particularly those fueled by coal, are one of the chief sources of toxic and other pollution into our waters and air. They kill and poison fish and wildlife and make fish in many lakes, streams and rivers unsafe to eat. By moving us toward cleaner energy, the Clean Power Plan will make our air and waters cleaner, our wildlife healthier, and help allow us to enjoy wildlife based activities with less pollution and health risks.

Protecting Wildlife From Mercury

Currently, most states have fish advisories in place concerning thousands of water bodies because mercury from power plants have resulted in serious health risks associated with eating fish. Coal fired power plants are the source of over half of human introduced mercury into the environment. We should not have to be afraid to eat the fish we catch.

Mercury also poisons other wildlife, like loons, that have no choice but to eat contaminated fish. A recent report found that 75% of loons in pristine Adirondack lakes far from coal plants had mercury levels that posed high to moderate risks.

Mercury is so toxic, that 1/70th of teaspoon to the make the fish in a 25 acre lake unsafe to eat. EPA estimates that the Clean Power Plan will remove 3,400 to 4,200 pounds of mercury from the environment.

While mercury and other toxic air pollutant (like arsenic and hydrochloric acid) levels from power plants are being reduced thanks to a 2012 rule, reducing reliance on coal and increasing using of non-polluting energy sources will further take these toxins out of our waters and our fish.

Cleaning Up Our Waters

When coal plants remove toxins like arsenic, chromium and nickel out of their smoke emissions, they end up in sludge waste that is often discharged into nearby waters. As a result, according the EPA, existing fossil fuel power plants contribute 50-60 percent of all toxic pollutants discharged into the nation’s surface waters by industrial categories. This poisons our waters, our wildlife, and ourselves. Increased reliance in clean sources of energy like wind and solar – which will be promoted by this rule – will help ensure these toxins stay out of our waters and don’t endanger wildlife.

Protecting Wildlife from Water Intake Systems

Fossil fuel power generation requires a significant amount of water to cool equipment and steam. A typical coal plant with a once-through cooling system withdraws between 70 and 180 billion gallons of water per year and consumes 0.36 to 1.1 billion gallons of that water.

By EPA’s own conservative estimates, industrial cooling water withdrawals annually result in the death of at least 2.2 billion age one-equivalent fish, crabs, and shrimp, and a minimum 528 billion larvae. EPA has also identified 88 threatened or endangered species, such as sea turtles, at risk from cooling water intake and more than 130,000 baseline losses of threatened and endangered species.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Tyler MacDonald donated this photo of a loggerhead sea turtle, which stand to benefit if harmful water intakes are reduced.

While new EPA rules have been issued on intake structures that will reduce these numbers, fossil fuel plants will continue to be able harm to wildlife with water withdrawals. However, by spurring the transition to a clean energy economy, the Clean Power Plan will help reduce the need for cooling and reduce wildlife causalties.

Reducing Acid Rain

Trout are harmed by acid rain, which will be reduced by transitioning to clean energy. Photo by USFWS.

Coal plants are one of the leading causes of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions, which form acid rain. Acid rain pollutes lakes and streams, harming wildlife and fish in areas that are otherwise pristine. In fact, acid rain can cause small lakes far from industry to become fishless.

According to EPA’s estimates, the Clean Power Plan will remove between 424,00 to 471,00 tons of sulfur dioxide and 407,000 to 428,000 ton of nitrogen oxides, which will mean less acid rain in the streams and lakes downwind of power plants. These pollutants create a host of other severe problems for wildlife, such nitrogen deposition which can fuel the toxic algal blooms in places like the Chesapeake Bay.

The benefits don’t end there. Reducing our reliance on fossil fuel and coal and moving swiftly to clean energy will also reduce pollution sources such as smog and coal ash, which threaten wildlife and habitat areas.

Building a clean energy future is clear win for wildlife. EPA’s Clean Power Plan is the biggest step towards that future ever proposed. It is important for wildlife that a strong rule becomes law.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/07/wildlife-benefits-of-clean-power-plan-go-way-beyond-climate-change/feed/098274From Pristine Bird Haven to Toxic Trap: Canada’s Tar Sands Threaten New England Birdshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/06/from-pristine-bird-haven-to-toxic-trap-canadas-tar-sands-threaten-new-england-birds/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/06/from-pristine-bird-haven-to-toxic-trap-canadas-tar-sands-threaten-new-england-birds/#respondWed, 11 Jun 2014 15:04:50 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=96711When Americans talk about tar sands, one of the most pernicious and devastating industrial undertakings the world has ever seen, those lucky enough not to have a pipeline running through their property generally think of a faraway threat. However, while the tar sands industry has its roots in Alberta, Canada, damage done to the old growth forest there has far-ranging implications. In fact, New Englanders may soon see and hear effects of tar sands extraction and pollution in our own backyards, wetlands and forests in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and around the country—we’ll be missing our birds.

The Hermit Thrush, Vermont’s state bird, may be threatened by tar sands development. Flickr photo by Kelly Colgan Azar.

Tar sands: A threat to New England’s birds

Canada’s boreal forest not only plays a vital role in carbon sequestration, clean water and wildlife habitat for North America and in fact the entire world – it is also the bird nursery for our continent, where millions of birds migrate to breed. But that nursery is being destroyed by mining and drilling practices that have already killed thousands of birds and are putting millions more at risk.

Among the hundreds of species at risk are several that are well known and loved by birders, sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts in the Northeast, including the Goldfinch, Common Loon, Pileated Woodpecker, Evening Grosbeak and Hooded Merganser. Vermont’s state bird, the hermit thrush, is also threatened. From other regions of the country, species as exotic as the critically endangered Whooping crane, America’s tallest bird, are also directly threatened by tar sands operations.

A few others of the 130 internationally protected American migratory and songbird species threatened by tar sands development include the Snow Goose, Great Blue Heron, Northern Pintail, Wood Duck, Siskin, Trumpeter Swan, and Cedar Waxwing.

From pristine bird haven to toxic trap

The United States and Canada agreed a century ago that our birds, which do not heed international boundaries, deserved protection wherever they flew. However, Canada’s rush to develop tar sands, one of the world’s dirtiest energy sources, is doing the opposite.

Countless waterfowl and songbirds have died in oil-laden tailings ponds in the past several years, and the destruction continues. But New England has an opportunity to slow the expansion of the tar sands industry, therefore preventing bird deaths, habitat impacts and the increased threat of climate change.

New Englanders can protect our waterfowl and songbirds

As long as the tar sands industry is encouraged by the Canadian government to expand at a breakneck pace no matter the cost, birds from all over North America will in danger. However, some of the power to slow this expansion is in the hands of the people of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. We can block the industry from reversing the aging Portland-Montreal pipeline, which runs directly through our three states, and using it to transport tar sands to overseas markets.

Preventing this use would not only directly protect birds, moose and other wildlife that rely on the 15 streams and rivers just in Vermont that the pipeline crosses, it would block another outlet for the tar sands industry to sell its toxic product. The chorus of Vermonters and others in the region calling on our leaders to stand up and say No is growing louder by the day. Join the call by clicking the link below:

The Great Blue Heron, which patrols the shores of lakes throughout New England, could be a casualty of toxic tar sands tailings ponds.

Help protect our New England birds and other wildlife at risk from tar sands by telling President Obama to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline.
]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/06/from-pristine-bird-haven-to-toxic-trap-canadas-tar-sands-threaten-new-england-birds/feed/096711Biologists Study Impact of BP Oil Disaster On Loonshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/biologists-study-impact-of-bp-oil-disaster-on-loons/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/biologists-study-impact-of-bp-oil-disaster-on-loons/#respondTue, 15 Apr 2014 16:32:21 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=94365Just over a year ago, I held a “charismatic megavertebrate” on my lap. As a participant on a research project in the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Louisiana, I had tucked the common loon’s head under my left arm, secured its feet with my right hand, and held its body gently but firmly against mine as the boat we rode on raced back to shore. There, in an improvised lab under a bar on stilts, biologist Jim Paruk, who had just netted the bird, would quickly weigh, measure, band and assess the loon’s health before releasing it.

Like tigers, dolphins and bald eagles, common loons are considered charismatic megavertabrates because they are large, at least for birds, and tend to be well liked by the general public. On their breeding grounds in the far north—where the birds’ haunting calls have come to symbolize summertime in the wilderness—common loons also “may be the best-studied birds in North America,” says Paruk, senior scientist at the Maine-based Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI). He and his BRI colleagues alone have banded more than 4,800 loons in 22 states and seven Canadian provinces.

Winter Loon Mysteries

In winter, common loons molt to a dull plumage and vocalize very little. The bird on the left has been banded by researchers. Photo by Darwin Long.

Yet in the Gulf of Mexico and other places loons spend the nonbreeding season, very little is known about the birds’ behavior and ecology during winter. Not only do loons molt to a dull plumage in the colder months, they vocalize little, making it difficult for scientists to study them. Even local fishermen can be surprised to learn there are loons are in the Gulf. Point out one of the birds bobbing offshore and you’re likely to be told that it’s a cormorant.

Paruk and his colleagues are trying to uncover the secrets of winter loon biology—at least for birds that winter in and around Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. For the past four years, with funding from the Earthwatch Institute, Snow Family Foundation and BRI, the researchers have been making new discoveries about winter loons’ feeding, migration and other behaviors.

Sadly, their work also is beginning to suggest that loons may have been harmed more by the BP oil disaster than scientists previously realized. Because Barataria Bay was hit hard by the spill, Paruk’s teams have been taking blood samples from the birds they capture, looking specifically for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The class of hydrocarbons most toxic to wildlife, PAHs cause a range of health problems, including anemia, liver damage, cancer and immunosuppression.

Hydrocarbon Spike

During the first two years of the study, the number of loons with PAHs in their blood increased between 2011 and 2012, as did concentrations of the contaminants. Overall PAH levels remained low, however. But in 2013, reports Paruk in a recent article in National Wildlife,” we detected a large spike in PAHs and a completely different oil signature—heavy PAHs that are more toxic to wildlife.”

His findings are troubling. That loons had significantly more PAHs in their blood three years after the spill than immediately following it suggests that hydrocarbons may be making their way up the food chain, Paruk says. And unlike his first two years’ results, he adds, “the concentrations we found in 2013 may be high enough to cause physical harm.”

Last month, Paruk wrapped up his fourth field season in the Gulf. In addition to measuring PAH levels, the researchers this year are also analyzing blood for signs of Corexit, the chemical dispersant used to break up the spilled oil. (In Minnesota, scientists have found evidence of Corexit in white pelicans that were in the Gulf during the spill.) In addition, an immunologist will study the samples to see if the birds’ immune systems are damaged.

Where Are the Loons?

Riding in a small rubber raft, Gary Lackie captured this common loon off the coast of Alaska. Photo donated by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Gary Lackie.

While results of those analyses will not be available for several months, Paruk says he and his colleagues already have noticed something different—and potentially alarming—this year. “We encountered far fewer loons in the study area than in the previous three years,” he says. “There could be many reasons, some having nothing to do with the oil spill,” Paruk adds. Lacking long-term data on loon numbers in the Gulf, there may be natural population fluctuations that scientists are unaware of, for example.

Another possibility, however, is that loons affected by the oil spill may be producing fewer chicks on their northern breeding grounds, so fewer juveniles are showing up during winter. Next summer, Paruk will launch a new project in Canada to assess the status of breeding loons that winter off the Louisiana coast. If he finds signs of trouble, it will not be too surprising. “After all,” Paruk says, “we are still seeing impacts on Alaskan wildlife more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez.”

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/08/photo-of-the-day-loon-party-of-seven/feed/265556Photo of the Day: Wake Me Up When We Get Therehttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/07/photo-of-the-day-wake-me-up-when-we-get-there/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/07/photo-of-the-day-wake-me-up-when-we-get-there/#commentsThu, 26 Jul 2012 13:24:08 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=64126

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized new air pollution standards that will result in the first-ever national limits on the amount of mercuryspewing from the nation’s coal-fired power plants.

Twenty plus years in the making, the new pollution limits on power plants will cut mercury emissions by 91%, reduce acid gas emissions 91%, and significantly cut arsenic, lead and nickel emissions.

The report warned of mercury’s potency as a neurotoxin that can cause neurological and brain damage at low levels in people and reproductive hazards in wildlife.

Excerpt from NWF’s 1999 mercury report:

The Clean the Rain Campaign…will press for the control and eventual elimination of mercury emissions that are contaminating the rain. It will call for the implementation of the following actions…

Coal-fired power plants must cut and eventually eliminate their combustion of coal (a major source of mercury, as well as smog and acid rain-producing pollutants).

New Rules Will Protect Children, Improve Health, Create Jobs

Each year, EPA’s new air toxic pollution rules will prevent 11,000 thousand of premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, 130,000 cases of childhood asthma and 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis. And it will prevent mercury exposure to children that can adversely affect their developing brains – including effect on their ability to walk, talk, read and learn.

The rules will also provide employment for thousands. The updating of older power plants with modern air pollution control technology will support 46,000 new short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs.

And as NWF has documented, the new pollution rules are also a huge present to wildlife. Mercury pollution belching out of power plants settles in our lakes and rivers where microscopic organisms convert the inorganic mercury into methylmercury. This form of mercury accumulates up the food chain in fish and then other into other animals when they eat fish. As a result, species from the common loon to the river otter to the Florida panther are impacted by mercury.

Over the last year, thousands of NWF members and supporters have continued the campaign started in 1999. They have attended public hearings, signed postcards, made phone calls, and sent over 50,000 messages supporting the EPA’s new efforts on mercury and pushing back against polluters attempts in Congress to stop these new air pollution protections.

So join NWF as we thank the EPA for taking action to protect your kids and wildlife from the dangers of mercury and toxic air pollution. Together, we can all breathe a little easier.

Misdirected federal funding cuts could become the next big threat to endangered wildlife like the Florida panther. Photo: Michael Levine.

With the holidays right around the corner, House Republican leaders are scrambling to fulfill the last-minute wish lists of their good friends, big polluters.

Knowing that Congress must pass the federal spending bills before year’s end in order to continue funding the government, some members are scheming to push through anti-wildlife measures that would otherwise never make it into law.

A whopping 51 anti-environmental “riders”–so called because they ride along appropriations bills while having nothing to do with spending–are being considered, making it one of the most aggressive assaults in our nation’s history to wildlife, clean air, and clean water.

At risk are cuts to programs in the Endangered Species Act, National Wildlife Refuge System, and State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program, which have been essential to protecting and restoring our wildlife and natural resources. In addition, some of the most egregious riders attempt to:

Block the EPA and U.S. Army Corps from clarifying the scope of the Clean Water Act, leaving 60% of our nation’s rivers and streams and over 20 million acres of wetlands–which provide crucial habitat for river otters–at risk.

Force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and remove the President’s authority to make a final decision on the project. Bypassing much-needed environmental review and turning Congress into a permitting body on this dangerous project would undermine the entire process and put wildlife–including the endangered whooping crane–and water supplies at risk of toxic oil spills.

Passing a spending bill should not be an opportunity to force through unrelated matters that have not received proper consideration or public scrutiny. We can responsibly and successfully fund the federal government in a way that protects our nation’s wildlife, natural resources, and public health.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2011/12/proposed-riders-an-assault-to-wildlife/feed/038350[Video] Don’t Let Mercury Silence the Loons’ Callhttp://blog.nwf.org/2011/06/mercurycommonloon/
http://blog.nwf.org/2011/06/mercurycommonloon/#commentsFri, 03 Jun 2011 15:39:11 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=23981Have you ever heard a Common Loon yodel? What about hoot, wail or tremolo? Not sure what a tremolo is? Or let’s rewind—not even sure what a Common Loon is?

The Common Loon (also known as the Great Northern Diver or Great Northern Loon) is large member of the loon family of birds. The Common Loon breeds in Canada, parts of the northern lower-48 states and Alaska, and Greenland.

But these Common Loons (known for their haunting calls) and their young are in jeopardy from the toxic mercury pollution that travels in the air from coal-fired power plant smokestacks, and accumulates within the northern lakes where loons breed.

We have the power to reduce harmful pollution threatening loons by advocating for the strong mercury limits proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA’s proposal would limit the mercury and air toxic pollution that comes from power plants – the country’s largest source of these toxic emissions. Right now, mercury pollution in the air contaminates our lakes, rivers, oceans, and forests. After landing in streams and rivers, a form of mercury called methylmercury builds up in fish and the wildlife that eat fish. The risk of mercury exposure also extends to terrestrial species such as songbirds, bats, spiders, and amphibians.

Mercury has many damaging effects on wildlife species. Fishincluding trout, bass (large and small mouth), northern pike, carp, walleye, salmon; birds such as the Common Loon, white ibis and great snowy egret;and mammals like the mink and river otters, have all been found with harmful levels of mercury accumulation.

The effects of mercury in fish, birds and mammals range from reproductive to behavioral. In fish there is a concern for reproductive issues and how this could mean a lower fish population in the future.

Image courtesy of Marlin Harms/Flickr

Common Loons do not know the fish they are eating are poisoned, and unlike us, cannot avoid foods with high mercury. After years of eating mercury-laden fish, loons with high mercury levels face difficulties that impact their ability to survive and for their young to survive. The more mercury they are burdened with, the more likely they are to spend less time at their nest taking care of their young, and the more likely they will even have asymmetrical feathers that make their long migration flight more difficult.

Both the mink and river otter in New England have been tested for mercury, and incredibly, studies have found levels of mercury in their bodies associated with severe effects including mortality.